Intermodal shipping containers house enormous quantities of finished goods moving by ship, rail and truck. They protect the goods during transport and in storage, so that the conveyance or storage site may be unencumbered of that function. The shipping industry was transformed when the first steel containers appeared in the 1950s. A subsequent improvement, the “Twist Lock” device by which the containers were secured together and to the conveyance, helped place these structures in common use.
As intermodal container traffic grew over the past 50 years, the logistics and expense of storing and moving empty containers increased. It is believed that significant trade imbalances created the surplus, with an estimated one-third of all containers being empty, at any given time. The cost of relocating empty containers for revenue service was so high that shippers attempted to avoid it. The result has been shipping yards, ports and intermodal facilities overflowing with empty containers. The environment was damaged by this overflow, and the energy required to move empty containers has added to the atmospheric carbon load. It is estimated today that over 34 billion dollars a year is spent annually on repositioning empty containers around the world. This cost is ultimately passed onto the end users and is reflected in the cost of each product moved.
Attempts to fabricate collapsible containers have been made. However, these earlier designs required external equipment that was cost prohibitive or unavailable in smaller ports, railroad yards and trucking facilities.